Re: Sony news from COMDEX

You're right about Sony's Digital Media Park software not having a CDDB interface. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe one of the restrictions on writing software which accesses data from CDDB is that the software cannot be sold commercially. It can only be offered as freeware or shareware. I don't think Sony is in that market.

I bought one of the Sony workstations about a month ago from Good Guys. That was before I ran across the Nirvis web page and bought a Slink-e. Sony is calling their new PCs "VAIO Digital Studio PC" and they come in two different models:
PCV-E302DS (350 MHz Pentium II, 64 MB SDRAM, 10.2 GB hard drive, $1499)
PCV-E308DS (450 MHz Pentium II, 128 MB SDRAM, 13.6 GB hard drive, $2299)

I couldn't find any other differences from the specs that are listed on Sony's web page. The prices don't include a monitor. Both models have a 5X DVD-ROM drive (24X CD-ROM drive).

The i-Link (Sonys name for IEEE-1394) interface is used for digital camcorders.
It's interesting that the help files in the Sony software list the following Sony CD players and MD recorders as being compatible with the Media Park software:

Sony CD players: CDP-CX58, CDP-CX220 & CDP-CX260
Sony MD players: MDS-JB920 & MDS-JA20ES

I think Sony wants people to buy their latest and greatest equipment. I have a CDP-CX90ES which seems to work OK with the Sony software, except that it doesn't transfer the custom file information. However, it does transfer the text (disc name and track names) from CD-Text audio CDs to the Media Park data base. By the way, the Sony Media Park data base file appears to be a Microsoft Access 97 database file.

What is interesting is that the Media Park software will transfer text information from COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) CD-Text Audio CDs as well as CD-Text Audio CDs burned on a CD-ROM. For those interested, Sony recently came out with a CD-RW/CD-R/CD-ROM drive that comes bundled with Sony CD-Right! software, which can be used to create a CD-Text Audio CD (see the attached link). The model number is CRX100E/CH. I noticed that COMP USA is selling them for $399, but I bought one for $336 from buycomp.com on the web (the $336 included 13$ for 2-day FED-EX).

I decided to burn my own CD-Text audio CDs to take advantage of the CD-TEXT features on the CDP-CX90ES, which I have had for almost two years. Has anyone noticed that there has been a recent explosion of new CD players and changers that support CD-Text(?), but try to buy an audio CD that supports CD-Text. I have yet to run into a sales person at any audio CD store (or Hi-Fi store, for that matter) that even knows what CD-Text is. Since burning a few CD-Text CD-ROMs, I found out that there are CD-Text audio CDs available, but only on CDs made by Sony or Sony owned (like Columbia) record labels. The only problem is that there is nothing on the packaging to indicate the CD is a CD-Text disc.

I have found that CDJ will transfer the CD-Text from a Commercial CD-Text audio CD (I have a CX260 as well as the CX90ES, and the transfer works on both). However, CDJ did not recognize the CD-R CD-Text disc that I created on the Sony
CD-RW drive. I have done a little bit of experimenting with the Slink-e viewer to try to see how the Sony Media Park software is doing text transfers.